The field of art to which this invention is directed is food products, and in particular low calorie food products, low calorie bulking agents, and also methods of preparing low calorie bulking agents.
Many substances are used in the manufacture of foods intended for persons who must restrict their intake of carbohydrates or calories or both. Generally, ingredients which are to be included in these foods must be of low calorific value. Furthermore, the dietetic foods produced with these ingredients must closely resemble calorie-containing foods in texture, taste and physical appearance. In addition, these ingredients must not, of course, present any problems of toxicity to the consumer of the food. Many materials which have been proposed for use in dietetic foods do not satisfy all of these requirements simultaneously.
Where a synthetic sweetener such as saccharin or cyclamate is used in a dietetic food to replace the sugar present in the natural food, the other physical properties, aside from sweetness, which were imparted to the natural food by the sugar must be imparted to the synthetic dietetic food by additional ingredients other than the synthetic sweetener. Some of the additional ingredients suggested for this use are nutritive themselves, and therefore add undesirable calorific value to the food to replace the calorific value contained in the sugar which was removed. Some of these ingredients may also alter the texture or eating qualities of the food so that it becomes unappealing or unwholesome. Finally, these additional ingredients may impart an unnatural color to the food, and, consequently, render it less palatable.
One low calorie food ingredient that has met with acceptance is polydextrose. Polydextrose is a low-calorie food ingredient typically used as a bulking agent to replace higher caloric food ingredients (e.g., sugars, fats) in food compositions. In general, polydextrose is a randomly bonded condensation polymer of dextrose and polycarboxylic acids (e.g., citric acid). There are a variety of polydextroses and these different polydextrose modifications can have different properties as food additives.
Polyols such as sorbitol (D-glucitol) and mannitol have widespread commercial application and are commonly used food ingredients. As a group the acyclic polyols are crystalline bodies covering a wide range in melting point and in taste ranging from faintly sweet to very sweet. The polyols commonly used in foods range in caloric availability from essentially fully caloric (sorbitol) to ca. 50% caloric (mannitol, lactitol). By removal of the elements of water from polyols it is possible to generate a number of cyclic anhydrides, or anhydropolyols.
Dulcitan, which consists mainly of 1,4-anhydrogalactitol is known to be non-metabolizable (Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry 1, 175 (1945)). At least two other anhydrohexitols (1,4-anhydromannitol and 1,5-anhydro-D-sorbitol) are also said to be nonmetabolizable.
Although such food additives as polydextrose make a significant advance in the field of food products there is a continual search for alternative low-calorie food bulking agents that impart the desired characteristics to food compositions, particularly the combination of low caloric utilization and crystallinity.